January 21, 2014

Lots of new talk about lots of new stufff to talk about at "Marijuana Law, Policy and Reform"

As some readers may already know, my Marijuana Law, Policy and Reform blog is really humming now as a great set of guest-bloggers adding their insights and perspective in that space have been providing lots more original commentary to that blog, a lot of which should be of continuing interest to sentencing fans. Here is a sampling of some of the new posts from just the past week:

HBO’s acclaimed Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel returns on Tuesday (10 p.m. ET/PT) with a closer look at marijuana use in the NFL....

The enlightening feature, reported by correspondent Andrea Kremer and produced by Chapman Downes, includes interviews with former NFL tight end Nate Jackson (Broncos 2003-2008); former NFL punter Chris Kluwe (Vikings 2005-2012); NFL Senior Vice President of Law and Labor Policy Adolpho Birch; Dr. Raphael Mechoulam of Hebrew University of Jerusalem; and former NFL player Daniel Davis (Real Sports happened to run into him at a Denver area dispensary while they were filming the segment).

According to the HBO report, players estimate that between fifty and sixty percent of today’s NFL players smoke pot. Former Broncos tight end Nate Jackson spoke candidly about self-medicating with marijuana during his playing days in Denver. “I weeded as needed,” Jackson told Kremer. “For me, personally, [marijuana as a painkilling alternative is] very viable. I prefer it. Marijuana was something that helped me, as the season wore on my body would start to break down. I was in a lot of pain.”

The Real Sports report also found that players prefer marijuana for pain management over opiate-based painkillers like Vicodin and Oxycodone which are legal and regularly prescribed by NFL team physicians to help players deal with the inevitable pain and injuries that result from the physically brutal sport.

“For a lot of guys, they see what happens with the older generation of players and how a lot of those guys got addicted to pain pills,” former NFL punter Chris Kluwe told Kremer. “You know - they have alcohol problems. And they're like, ‘Well, you know, is there an alternative? Is there something else we can do?’ And marijuana is an alternative.”...

Beyond pain management and relief, the Real Sports report also explores another potential benefit of marijuana -- effective treatment of traumatic brain injuries (another issue Real Sports has reported on for several years). Nate Jackson discussed his use of marijuana to help ease concussion symptoms after a blow to his head and neck knocked him out of the second to last game of his career. “The weed helped me,” Jackson told Kremer.

Kremer interviewed Dr. Raphael Mechoulam of Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the doctor who discovered THC in 1964 and who has spent the last 50 years studying marijuana. Mechoulam has researched marijuana’s efficacy in relieving not only chronic pain and inflammation but how traumatic brain injuries in mice react to marijuana. Dr. Mechoulam allowed Real Sports to film his team in action as it worked with injured mice. The results are remarkable.

Comments

I know for a fact that President Obama was a fan of Bob Marley. So was Boehner back when he smoked pot and cigarettes. So, Obama and Boner (no pun intended) would like you all to hear this Bob Marley song, or the lyrics:

Warning - The surgeon general warns
Cigarette smoking is dangerous... Dangerous
Hazard to your health
Does that mean anything to you?

Then legalize marijuana
Right here in Jamaica yeah
Dem say it cure glaucoma yeah
I'm an a de bush doctor yeah
So there'll be no more
Smokin' and feeling tense
When I see dem a com
I don't have to jump no fence

Legalize marijuana
Down here in jamaica yeah
Only cure for asthma yeah
I man a de minister yeah
So there'll be no more
Police brutality
No more disrespect for humanity

Legalize marijuana yeah
Down here in jamaica yeah
It can build up a failing economy yeah
Eliminate the slavish mentality

So there'll be no more
Illegal humiliation
And no more police
Interrogation

Legalize marijuana
Down here in sweet jamaica
Only cure for glaucoma
I'm an a de bush doctor yeah

--end- or sort of--

My point is that as long as you have these schmucks running Congress running out in a panic to smoke in the hallway, you will have opposition to lowering a penalty on pot possession or sale. You see, they have this thing in their bong heads that This is Ok and That is Not. Meanwhile, I tell the smokers of the world that guns are quicker and that is the main reason we have the Second Amendment. The Surgeon General should simply warn that Suicide is Dangerous. And let it go at that. Or so says Boehner and the Boehner Bunch as they smoke cigarettes out in the Halls of Congress. With their lobbyists from Star Scientific. Don't get me going on that one. The McDonnell guy might be related to McConnell. Same Irish immigrant family, different boat to Ellis Island. Nuff said.

Posted by: Liberty1st | Jan 22, 2014 9:10:12 AM

Bill Otis keeps saying nobody's doing time for small time marijuana cases. True he talks about "just possession." But if folks aren't doing time for possessing, why should folks who sell small amounts do time? If they should do some time,
40 years??See above post"Fourteen years for selling $40 worth of marijuana."

Posted by: anon | Jan 22, 2014 11:22:30 PM

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